Global watchdog calls for UK to regulate crypto in same way as stocks and bonds

The watchdog’s international guidelines will help create ‘a level playing field between crypto assets and traditional financial markets’, it said. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

The global markets watchdog has urged the UK to regulate cryptocurrencies in the same way as traditional assets such as stocks and bonds, countering MPs’ calls last week for the risky investments to be treated as a form of gambling.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (Iosco) – an umbrella group of regulators from 130 jurisdictions – made the recommendation as part of the first set of international guidelines for crypto regulation.